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Vanuatu’s President Gives Deadline To Resolve Political Crisis

Submitted by admin on Tue, 10/27/2015 - 00:00

Vanuatu’s President Gives Deadline To Resolve Political Crisis If no resolution reached, Lonsdale plans urgent steps to ensure stability

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (Radio New Zealand International, Oct. 27, 2015) – Vanuatu's President Baldwin Lonsdale has given the Government and the Opposition until November the 6th to resolve the country's political crisis.

Radio Vanuatu reports if the deadline is not met Father Lonsdale will have to take urgent steps to ensure the country is returned to stable government.

A meeting was scheduled on Monday to bring the Government and the Opposition together at State House but the Prime Minister Sato Kilman was unable to attend.

Eight appeal applications have been received by the Supreme Court from the MPs jailed on bribery charges last week.

About a quarter of the country's MPs were jailed last week including the Speaker and deputy Prime Minister.

The Appeal Court will sit from November the 9th and the court has scheduled two weeks to hear the appeals.

[PIR editor’s note: RNZI reported that ‘An expert on Melanesia politics says the recent pardoning and bribery saga involving a quarter of Vanuatu's MPs has sent a strong signal that the rule of law prevails in the country. ... Jenny Hayward Jones of the Australian think tank, the Lowy Institute, says the weaknesses in Vanuatu's political system have been exposed on a grand scale as have the flaws of many of Vanuatu's elected politicians. ... But she says there are positive signs for the country in the long-term.’]

Pacific Islands Report is a nonprofit news publication of the Pacific Islands Development Program at the East-West Center in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Offered as a free service to readers, PIR provides an edited digest of news, commentary and analysis from across the Pacific Islands region, Monday - Friday.